


Between the Lines

by 23otters



Category: Teen Wolf (TV)
Genre: Alternate Universe - Soulmates, F/M, Soulmate-Identifying Marks, scallison is fairly minor
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2018-02-04
Updated: 2018-02-04
Packaged: 2019-03-13 09:18:43
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 2,308
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/13567518
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/23otters/pseuds/23otters
Summary: That one soulmate au where whatever you write on your skin appears on your soulmates skin also. Allison and Lydia grow up together, and so do Scott and Stiles, but not all together and not in Beacon Hills. There is also none of the universe-typical supernatural stuff. Just some kids trying to find their soulmates and dealing with life. You would think that with soulmate identifying marks it would be easy to find your soulmate, not when you are as stubborn as Stiles and Lydia.





	Between the Lines

The first time something appears on Stiles’ skin is in third grade. It is a simple flower drawn on the back of his hand, it brings a smile to his face at a time when smiles are rare.

 

The first time something appears on Lydia’s skin is when she is eleven. The mark appears to be some sort of crudely drawn house? But no, there were two circles beneath it. A car of some sort? A Jeep.

  
Partway through seventh grade, the writing appears more frequently. Most often in the form of what are obviously doodles, winding vines and tree branches and flowers that wind up his arm and between his fingers. Stiles speculates with Scott over whether she is artistic or bored.

 

Except for the times when she decorates her own skin, her arms are frequently covered with times and due dates and angry scribbles from when he must have been mindlessly testing pens at the expense of his (and her) own skin. Allison teases her about how he will one day drive her crazy with his chaos.

 

One day an equation appears on his wrist, it is quickly succeeded by many more lines of letters and numbers as she tries to work it out. When she pauses for a minute he writes the next step and soon she continues it. After that equations frequently cover his arm, following the same patterns as the branches and vines from before. They always seem to appear during the evening and are always gone by morning.

 

She is thankful that he seems to have a brain, that when they finally meet she won’t have to twirl her hair around her finger and question herself even when she knows she is right. Allison says that she doesn’t have to do that anyway, but Lydia just smiles because she envies Allison’s naivety of what the world expects her to be.

 

Many late nights after too many video game levels and too little sleep are spent wondering about their other halves. Scott always seems to have arrows on his arms, contrasting against the loopy script of half imagined lines of poetry. They wonder when they will meet and Scott voices his fear of her not liking him back. Stiles immediately dispels it, no one can resist those puppy dog eyes and dimples, he says, all while pushing down his own fear.

 

The first attempt at proper communication comes toward the end of her Sophomore year. She is bored out of her mind trying to focus on what the teacher is saying even though she already did the homework. _My name is Stiles_ appears jaggedly along her wrist. She jumps a little, and immediately hides her arm below the table, for some reason she didn’t want anybody else to partake in this moment. Feigning sickness she ducks into an unused office and calms her breathing as she digs a pen out of her backpack. Wishing that Allison didn’t have a presentation in her class today she responds, _Lydia_ is all she writes after a minute of deliberation.

 

After he learns her name he finds that he wants to know everything else about her. What is her favorite color (green). Favorite Disney movie (The Little Mermaid). How does she take her coffee (mocha, but if she has late night work to do she drinks it black). What does she do for fun (she likes books and watching sappy rom-coms with Allison). And anything else he can think of. He doesn’t want to scare her because he knows he can be a little overzealous in his research, so he starts slow, a few questions a day that she answers and returns with a question of her own. Soon he begins to get a feeling of who she is through a weird version of twenty questions.

 

She is glad that Stiles started this repertoire with all of the questions, she begins to get a sense of just what he is like, even if it leads to some odd questions. Which she decides is rather endearing one morning when she wakes up to a slightly smeared question concerning her preference of pulp in orange juice (light, it is good for you, an answer that disgusts him because juice isn’t supposed to have texture). She smiles and shakes her head, all the while ignoring the fact that her heart did a little flip at the whole ridiculous exchange.

 

Eventually the questions are harder to come up with, so the communication slows down. Evolving from cautious curiosity into a comfortable camaraderie. He tries not to let a day go by without some sort of interaction, even if it is just a math pun or some badly scribbled meme.

 

Lydia appreciates his efforts at communication, and puts in her own effort at keeping in touch, but she has a certain reputation and having a crudely drawn frog on her forearm does not add to her intimidation factor. Allison finds the whole thing hilarious, of course, but Lydia is always sure to point out that Allison's arms are usually covered with cute animals and bad attempts at romance. Allison only finds those things endearing though, and Lydia hopes that whoever is putting those marks on her best friend's arms will properly appreciate her.

 

He thinks that the subject of location and college has been avoided on purpose. Both afraid that they will feel obligated to make different life choices than they normally would. His pen hovers over his skin, thinking to ask what her plans are after graduation. But he always changes his mind and will instead write a dumb pun that he knows will cause her to write an angry face in response.

 

She finally gets up the nerve to ask him about his plans after high school at the beginning of the summer after Senior year. She knows that any plans will be set in stone by then so they won’t feel any sort of obligation. When she learns that they are going to the same school she feels her face break into a grin and she lets out a squeal that is very un-Lydia-like and causes Allison to look up from her book in concern. But she of course joins in the celebration when she learns the reason for it.

 

They had agreed to wait a few weeks into school before trying to properly meet up, not wanting to miss out on anything because they were constantly looking over their shoulder for the other. They share their hopes and fears for college, he learns that she is going to major in mathematics (no surprise there). He shares that he wants to take his dads place as sheriff one day. They are both ecstatic to be going to the same school as their respective best friends.

 

The moment she steps on campus she writes an _I’m here_ on her arm, looking around to see if anyone happens to look down at their arm. No one does by the time a _me too_ appears and a grin is splitting her face. The rest of the weekend is a blur of boxes and goodbyes and don’t worry’s and nice to meet you’s. Until Sunday night, when her and Allison are finally able to hide out in their dorm and recap all that has happened. _Classes tomorrow, scared or terrified?_ Appears in that now familiar scrawl on her forearm. _Excited_ , she responds. _I don’t remember that being one of the options_ , is what he returns with and she rolls her eyes before double-checking that everything is ready for the next morning.

 

_I feel like now that there is an actual chance that we could meet that we should have physical descriptions of each other_ , he writes on his way to his first class on Monday.

  
 Lydia wishes Allison good luck as she leaves for class, then turns her attention to her arm. Deciding not to go easy on him she writes, _what happened to waiting a few weeks to get comfortable on campus?_

 

Stiles pauses to check that he has the classroom number right, and then adds _I just don’t want to walk right by you in the cafeteria without even knowing that its you._

 

She smiles and responds, _I thought that part of the fun was searching for the other by looking for someone with the same pen marks?_

 

_Just one feature then?_ Is what Stiles responds with, he almost trips on his way to his seat in the lecture hall because he is staring at his arm so hard. _Strawberry Blonde_ , is all she writes. Well, if that is how she wanted to play, _flannel_ , he writes, following it with _let the game begin._

 

Lydia senses that he thinks this is some sort of competition, of who can find the other first. And Lydia Martin does not like to lose. She takes to scribbling on her arm whenever she catches even a glimpse of someone in a flannel.

 

He knew that she liked coffee so he decides to wait it out. If you wait long enough, every college student passes through the coffee shop. He picks a table, one with a clear view of the door and does his homework while always keeping one eye peeled for a Strawberry Blonde to waltz through the door.

 

For the first few weeks the game is fun, on top of finding classes and organizing sylabi and making new friends and generally adjusting to college life it adds a little something to the magic of university. But then as she settles into a routine, Lydia soon begins longing to have Stiles included in it.

 

Scott thinks that he has found his own soulmate, him and Stiles spend an entire evening trying to think of the best way to tell a girl who has sat six rows in front of you for the last two and a half weeks that you're meant to be together forever. Stiles thinks that if he was in the same situation he might accidentally knock the girl over with his excited flailing.

 

Allison returns with a grin one day, and at Lydia's raised eyebrow announces that the cute guy who offered her a pen in class had an arrow in the same spot as the one on her own wrist. They get ice cream to celebrate.

 

Stiles had never been so aware of hair color. Obsessing over something was not a new concept to him, but this was something that a wikipedia spiral couldn’t help him with. Scott walked in on him dressed as a janitor about to go door to door searching, that was when he knew that he had hit rock bottom.

 

The game is quickly growing old, who knew there could be so many guys wearing flannels on campus? But she refuses to be the one to admit defeat.

 

Three weeks is a long time to be within walking distance of your soulmate and still never meet them. He wonders if she is feeling as defeated as he is.

 

Lydia meets Scott briefly one evening when he stops by to pick up Allison for a study date, he is every bit as sweet as she expected Allison's soulmate to be and she is very happy for them. But after they leave she is left with the sour taste of jealousy in the back of her throat.

 

Stiles meets Allison in an elevator on his way to class. They are both bundled up to protect from the bitter cold outside but she has pulled up her sleeve and is smiling at what he knows is his best friends handwriting. He steps out with a warm fuzzy feeling that is accompanied by an overwhelming longing.

 

She tried to avoid the on campus coffee shop as much as possible, all of the tired faces and sweatpants made her feel unproductive just by being in the same vicinity as them. But when the coffee machine her and Allison shared broke, well, desperate times call for desperate measures.

 

Stiles has almost forgotten the original reason why he claimed this spot, the coffee shop has become his go-to spot for doing homework, studying, or napping depending on how close a deadline was.  
 Lydia got her coffee and found a secluded table, she saw a few flannels and without even thinking scribbled onto her arm. She almost spit out her coffee when she saw one of the flannels shift and look down at his arm, a smile playing around his lips. Oh no. He was hot. Not in a washboard abs and perfectly gelled hair way that she normally liked, but in a way that she found she liked much better. Without looking she wrote _found you_ as she jumped out of her seat and began striding towards him.

 

Stiles had almost fallen asleep on his laptop when he saw another scribble appear on his arm. He pictured her stomping around campus, furiously scribbling and looking for someone with the (very obvious) markings. But when _found you_ suddenly appeared he flailed around and began searching frantically. His heart began to pound as he tried to simultaneously search every arm in the shop, wipe the drool off his chin, fix his hair so it didn’t look so much like he had rolled out of bed like that, and straighten his posture. Suddenly he saw her. The only strawberry blonde in the place, she had a determined look on his face that would have made lesser men run. She was perfect. He was certain that he had that dopey look on his face that Scott always made fun of him for, but he could not bring himself to care.

 

“My name is Stiles”, he said jumping up and thrusting his hand out to her as she finally reached his seat.

 

A smile tugged at her mouth, “Lydia”.


End file.
